My friend Elaine Short, who has died aged 89, was an artist, potter, teacher and Francophile. She was also a skilled and talented weaver. When I met her in the 1990s she showed me some of her beautiful tapestries, many of them inspired by the Sussex countryside. Her work was exhibited in galleries including Hastings Art Forum, where she was an active member, and her tapestry techniques were much admired.
Born in Nice, France, to Alice (nee Bousseaux) and John Braithwaite, a British army officer, who after the second world war worked as a company secretary, Elaine went to St Joseph’s Catholic school in south London. The family had moved to the UK at the outbreak of the war.
